Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Over the last 11 years, we have invested wisely in schools, roads, public transport and environmental infrastructure, giving us one of the highest rates of public investment in Europe. We have dramatically increased the State pension, child benefit and the number of gardaí, teachers, doctors and nurses serving our people. These are the choices we made with the surplus that our taxpayers earned for us and we made wise choices in increasing this social expenditure.

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